This is definitely a good question bearing in mind that the financial downturn is still with us and perhaps domestic customers are checking up on quick answers to saving money. Unfortunately solar energy panels, like most other renewable energy answers do not give excellent short term payback, but instead are a long term return on investment choice. So it depends on the mind-set of the home user as to whether the solar energy prices of about £12,000 for a normal domestic solar energy panels installation, is something they can handle. The normal return on investment period for this solar energy panels installation is around 10 to 12 years, but with an estimated lifetime of about 45 years, once the solar energy prices have been recovered, the home user is then creating all free electricity. In fact the electricity that is provided by the solar energy panels can be regarded as free from the start, it just depends on how the solar energy prices are taken into account.
The installation of solar energy panels could in fact be a spur to the home user to take a environmentally supportive viewpoint on their electricity requirement patterns and one aspect that can be looked into easily is that of machines. The Energy Trust web site has reviews of high efficiency machines, so perhaps with these along with some electricity saving practices the home user could be able to save more money. Obviously this could well add more expense over and above the solar energy prices already paid, but in the long run these electricity saving machines should also be reliable and long lasting and so could well also be good long term purchases.
The normal solar energy panels installation is estimated to be able to generate around 40% of the normal families’ electricity demands, but with the electricity saving machines as well, this percentage must improve. This in itself could well give the home user some sense of achievement in cutting their electricity bills by about 40%, and then saving even more by cutting their electricity requirement. In addition, the home user will receive credits via the feed-in tariff for electricity provided by their solar energy panels and also for any excess electricity that gets distributed back to the grid via their utility supply company.